KayPi
Supporting Member
Back in Mid-November I switched up my 40g Waterbox. It was already planted, but it was just a fish only tank I started to throw plants randomly into, without any real design or planning. I wanted to actually aquascape it and decided to go all in on plants, and to me, that meant co2. I got a 20lb co2 tank from a hydroponics shop in Potrero Hill, cause Aqua Forest and Airgas had much higher prices, and that’s even when you bring your own cylinder.
Anywho, as for the ‘scape, I love the overgrown/jungle style, so that’s what I went for. I had to find the right piece of driftwood, and luckily found this piece at Neptune. I never thought I’d drop $100 on a piece of wood, but here we are. I knew that I wanted to take the anubias coffeefolia from my 6g shrimp tank, and make that one of the focal pieces glued onto the driftwood. I also knew that I wanted this tanks existing red tiger lotus as the other focal point. Neither is hard or rare, but damn do they look amazing!
The rest was largely just stuff I had in the tank already, like an amazon sword, crypt spiralis tiger (what a plant!!!) or things like the hygro pinnatifida and rotala cuttings from the shrimp tank. I did go to Aqua Forest in the city to get some ludwigia ovalis (for some red), and vallisneria corkscrew and nana to get that jungle look, and some dwarf sag for a carpet. An assortment of smaller anubias’ and buce’s, as well as a mix of Christmas and flame moss, rounded out the “s##t I’m gluing to the driftwood”.
For substrate I wanted to stick with the natural look, so brown was the order of the day. Brown controsoil sits at the bottom, with a cap of Caribsea Peace River sand as it seemed not too fine and not too course, as well as looking nice.
Long story short, this was the initial result after about a week:
I was pretty damn pleased with how it turned out, but was shocked that co2 isn’t just a magic bullet…cause I started getting some of the worst algae issues I’ve ever had. Staghorn algae, green hair algae and cyano galore! I’ve largely gotten them under control…but not eliminated…but manageable at this time.
As for the ‘scape, well, it’s a little different. I decided I didn’t like the corkscrew Val which was supposed to cover the heater, and I didn’t like the water wisteria once it started taking over. I yanked both and replaced them with a red sword, red parrot feather and a limnophila hippuridoides (side note, don’t know what’s worse, these goofy coral names or scientific names…). The Val nana and ludwigia ovalis have gone mental with growth, and require so much pruning, but I love the look. I got some more dwarf sag, some hairgrass and a marsilea hirsuta to try a carpet, with meh results so far, I’m thinking cause the light is towards the back.
Well, with all that said, here it is today:
Sorry for the potato quality of my pictures =)
Anywho, as for the ‘scape, I love the overgrown/jungle style, so that’s what I went for. I had to find the right piece of driftwood, and luckily found this piece at Neptune. I never thought I’d drop $100 on a piece of wood, but here we are. I knew that I wanted to take the anubias coffeefolia from my 6g shrimp tank, and make that one of the focal pieces glued onto the driftwood. I also knew that I wanted this tanks existing red tiger lotus as the other focal point. Neither is hard or rare, but damn do they look amazing!
The rest was largely just stuff I had in the tank already, like an amazon sword, crypt spiralis tiger (what a plant!!!) or things like the hygro pinnatifida and rotala cuttings from the shrimp tank. I did go to Aqua Forest in the city to get some ludwigia ovalis (for some red), and vallisneria corkscrew and nana to get that jungle look, and some dwarf sag for a carpet. An assortment of smaller anubias’ and buce’s, as well as a mix of Christmas and flame moss, rounded out the “s##t I’m gluing to the driftwood”.
For substrate I wanted to stick with the natural look, so brown was the order of the day. Brown controsoil sits at the bottom, with a cap of Caribsea Peace River sand as it seemed not too fine and not too course, as well as looking nice.
Long story short, this was the initial result after about a week:
I was pretty damn pleased with how it turned out, but was shocked that co2 isn’t just a magic bullet…cause I started getting some of the worst algae issues I’ve ever had. Staghorn algae, green hair algae and cyano galore! I’ve largely gotten them under control…but not eliminated…but manageable at this time.
As for the ‘scape, well, it’s a little different. I decided I didn’t like the corkscrew Val which was supposed to cover the heater, and I didn’t like the water wisteria once it started taking over. I yanked both and replaced them with a red sword, red parrot feather and a limnophila hippuridoides (side note, don’t know what’s worse, these goofy coral names or scientific names…). The Val nana and ludwigia ovalis have gone mental with growth, and require so much pruning, but I love the look. I got some more dwarf sag, some hairgrass and a marsilea hirsuta to try a carpet, with meh results so far, I’m thinking cause the light is towards the back.
Well, with all that said, here it is today:
Sorry for the potato quality of my pictures =)
